The BarnYard Designer of NC offers website design throughout North Carolina. We specialize in web design and graphics design for small to medium size businesses from Raleigh to Fayetteville.

FAQs

Q?Why do you work in a barn?

Because I own it already, and why not? It has a pretty cool little office in it.

Keeping overhead down will keep my fees down. And besides, I like it out here.

Q?As a ‘freelancer’ how do I know you are dependable about working?

Because I have bills to pay.
I worked for the design firm Roaring Aardvark for 9 years before the owner retired. I liked my job. I liked getting a paycheck even more so I was pretty dependable and usually well behaved.
I’ve lived here, and owned another business here, since 2000. I’d hate to get any kind of bad reputation about my ‘work ethic’.

Q?What are your hours? Do you take walk-ins?

Monday – Thursday 10:00 AM til 4:00 PM and Friday 10:00 AM til 2:00 PM.

Because I am a independent contractor, and a business of one, I am not always available during my listed ‘business hours’, and I often do work outside of those hours.

From time to time I also get sick, have a doctor’s appointment, need to take my car in for service, take a lunch break, need to run errands, take a vacation, or observe federal holidays.

Walk-ins are not welcome, not because I’m lacking in Southern charm, but because I honestly operate out of a working barn. There are times I am simply not here or available. If you want to come visit me I’d be more than happy to schedule an appointment with you.

Q?How long have you been doing website related work?

I went to school for networking and computer hardware… and hated it. During school there was a small module about the internet, and that’s when I started an interest in web design.

When I finished school in 1997 I got a job working for KSA Advertising in Tampa, FL converting their print advertising media to websites.

So the answer is since 1997.

Q?How much does it cost to build a website?

Now that is a really good question. It is like asking how much does it cost to build a house.

The answer is, it just depends.

If you are on a tight budget, like a $250 budget, I can help you get a no frills (but useful) website presence that will be the internet equivalent of a business brochure (who you are, what you do, how to be contacted). This is about a 3 page website with some photos, good text and a modest SEO effort (that’s Search Engine Optimization). This also includes a year of hosting. No harm in starting modest, you can always improve & grow the website over time.

For about $300 – $500 that will get you a larger static website with some functionality like a photo gallery, email forms, a calendar (I recently did a nifty little static site that needed store locations and we found the coolest little app for that! It was so exciting!).

For $450 – $700* we can get you into a WordPress website with *unlimited functionality possibilities (calendars, photo albums, latest news, blog). You’ll have the means to manage ALL the content of your own website, any time of day or night with any modern computer and access to the internet. The upward price limit depends on this *limit… so…

For $800 – $1,200 we can get you into a ‘full of bells and whistles’ WordPress website with a LOT of content entered for you (2 dozen pages, photos that need editing, and a lot of mind changing along the way).

Why don’t you contact me and let me know what you need and I can give you an estimate!

Q?What are the costs associated with building a website?

Basically

The cost of actually creating it
The yearly cost of your domain name (your.com)
The yearly cost of hosting
Any updates you want done that you can not do yourself

Q?What are your hourly rates?

I charge $48.00 an hour for sites that host with me, $54.00 an hour for sites that are self-hosted.

And do you know what is good about that? Well number 1 it is cheaper than the shop I worked for (ya see, I work in a barn now, I don’t have a lot of overhead). Number 2, it’s cheaper than most other design shops. And number 3, $48.00 an hour works out to 80 cents a minute and $54.00 an hour works out to 90 cents a minute. Do you know what that allows me to do? Bill by the actual minute I work on your website. No billing for fractions of hours, no billing ‘by the page’.

If you send the content for your pages very neat and tidy, ran your spell checker and had someone else proof read for grammar, then I can whip through that stuff like a hot knife through butter. Fast. Billing by the minute… get it?

Q?What forms of payment do you take?

Checks are best. PayPal is good. Cash is good as well (but that would require an appointment for me to hand you a receipt – so you’ll have to make an appointment).

Q?What kind of website development and design work do you do?

Static html websites, check.

Html websites using applications, gidgets, gizmos, widgets (you get the point) like photo albums, calendars, slide shows, check.

Puttering around with some php, javascript (and those kinds of things), check.

WordPress websites, check, check, CHECK!

I do not do eCommerce beyond PayPal. Don’t even ask.

I do not do custom programming. Not in php, not in asp, not in ColdFusion, not even Ruby (though I do have a pretty cool Tshirt from them).

And yes, I do graphics.

Q?If I have you work on my website, are we ‘married’ for a specific amount of time?

I’m not the cable company. And chances are, if you’re tired of working with me, well then, why not part ways?

For all work, either building a new website or updating an existing website, I do use a short and modest contract that basically says if you ask me to do the work, you’ll pay me to do the work. If you don’t pay for the work, you don’t get to have the work that was done.

You ask, I work, you pay. You ask, I work, you pay. You don’t ask, I don’t work, and you don’t have anything to pay. If you ask, and I work and you don’t pay, you don’t get the work I’ve done. That’s our working ‘website development’ relationship.

If you decide to host your website with me, that is a slightly different relationship. You pay for hosting for a year and your website will reside on the server for a year. However, if you want your cousin Ike to take over your website (see our hosting information about refunds) you can walk away, Renee.

Q?What is hosting?

Web hosting is the service of keeping the files that create a website on a ‘host’ server (mega computer) that has a super connection to the internet.

Q?I’ve seen cheaper hosting, why host with you?

You are right. You can find cheaper yearly hosting, and I’ll still happily build and / or work on your website. The catch?

I have to collect payment up front for any updates or maintenance I do on websites not hosted @ The BarnYard.
Why? because some not-so-nice people have not paid their bills in the past. Then I cried and ate Ramen noodles for a week.
If something goes wrong with your website in the future, do you want to call your host provider’s technical support? Why do I ask? Because access to your hosting account requires me having your user name and password, then I’ll have to have my memory wiped clean, which always results in me forgetting where I left my car keys. So you’ll have to create a user account specifically for me and give me authorization on your account to call technical support on your behalf. And this requires you contacting technical support.
I am pretty familiar with my hosting set up. I’ve been using it for quite a while now. Familiarity = efficiency = economical savings.

I only charge a few dollars a month more than the ‘Big Cheap Guys’ (unless the ‘B.C.Gs’ are having a sale or new customer special, but when your term expires they’ll charge their full/normal pricing again). And if something goes wrong you will only have to contact me.

Q?What is a domain name?

That is your website address. Your URL, Uniform Resource Locator. The phrase with .com after it. Look upward on the screen, mine is BarnYardDesigner.com .

Q?In the end, do I own my website?

When you pay the final bill, why yes, yes you do.

Upon completion and final payment I will create a .zip file of all your website’s files at the time it goes live and give you a link to download the file.

I hope you will not mind a small, very tiny small link to my website at the very very very bottom of your website (as most developers / designers do). Having it there in no way implies I own your website.

Q?Do you work with clients outside of North Carolina?

Yes! I have built many websites for people I have never had a face to face meeting with, so it doesn’t matter if you are located in good ole NC or not.

Q?Do you ‘outsource’ your work?

Heck no! I do the work in-house (errr, in-barn). I pay my taxes, and I use my income here in our local and national economy. 🙂